Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1887-10-21
IN A GYPSY CAMP.
The Sentiment and Superstition Hear,
In the RomanY Tent.
From the st. Louis Globe Democrat


lFrom the St Louis Globe. Democrat
Around the tent and kettle-stick cluster
by far the most that is priced in gypsy lore,
sentiment and superstition. The tent is the
gypsy's home as much as your own habita-
tion is yours. The race feeling of attach
ment to it is wonderful to us who see in it
only ragged contemporary covering. But
it has ever been his home from an earlier
time than you have record of your own pro-
genitors' habitations 1t is undiscoverable
why it is 80, but these tents here in this
lovely camp on the Presumpscot nearly all
face south. You will find that true of any
gypsy camp in any part of the world. Pos
sibly there is traceable in it an unconscious
relic OF ancient sun worshipping. Possibly
your reason that its lazy occupants love the
sun like any other animals would hold good
But even in a language only preserved from
lip to memory, and whose possessors are too
ignorant to comprehend its or their own ori-
gin, there still remain from the imagery of
an almost barbaric heart lore many express
sions of most poetic form and feeling. These
| tell how closely knit into the very life fibre
of the gypsy has been the aspiration to make
mis- tent home all that is dearest and best to
| him.
ssFirm as rounded hill are the tents of
my people," breathed some gypsy poet a
thousand years ago, and the roadside wan
derer to-day will pridefully give you the
same sentence in Romany. "My toves
breasts are as hillocks of amber, or as bright
| tents FURNISHED by the sum-" sang some Ro-
many Solomon in the jungles of India, and
| the gypsy lover of to-day sighs in the same
poetic simile. t'True to my people as our
tents against the sand wind, !" sI will cling
to my Rom (the first, the head, the husband)
| like the panther skin to the crooked wood''-
1Irv II &1,a 1nrtu 10 k0
| the tent bow; "Our tents shall guard from
the storm darts as shields of brass make
dowerless great spears" GAS the crouching
| hare is vaulted by the raging lion, shall our
earth colored tents remain hidden from the
pursuer;" Gas still the red stars sleep,
| shall nestle our tents in the Valleys" Gas
| the heart holdeth the warm blood and giveth
strength, SO my tent holdeth all my life''-
are a few of the innumerable poetic image
ries attaching to the tent; which rough and
| unctuous fancies, crystallizing motive and
| character are countless. The skewer is the
| sharp hickory peg with which the woo1en
coverings are pinned to the tents. Conse-
quently a virago has can evil eye and a
skewer tongue" A wasteful gypsy is as a
coverless tent A spiritless one, as a rotten
| tent bow. A lewd woman is as a fallen tent,
| and COED one "as snug as a proper tent. /"
There are also many quaint and tender love
and gypsy homo songs, in which the tent
| in; while there are certain unwritten and in
yiolable laws and customs about the tent
| which are very Interesting to observe and
| study. The rule is universal preventing
gypsies occupying the tent's inner compart-
ments, save at night or when driven inside
| by storms. In case of quarrels, involving
serious trouble and possible endangering of
| life, no gypsy who is defending himself may
be pursued within the tent. Gypsies cling
| to an old tent until the last moment it can be
sliced and patched together, out of pure af-
| lection for it. can old tents an old
friend" is one Of their proud sayings. Any
| gypsy born under tent preserves a piece of
| its bows or wooden covering until his dying
| day, and it is then buried with his effects.
| To be born in the tent carries pride, as does
good strain of blood. Those born "under
roof" are regarded as unfortunate. These
are often derisively termed in Romany
kair rajahs, or tthouse lords"
] As with all things else in use among the